Mango Street Poem

Words from The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Arranged by

Searching for a New Home
Down, down Mango Street we go
Across the boulevard
Three long blocks
Look at that house, I said, it looks like Mexico!
It’s small and red with tight steps in front and windows
It has wooden stairs
And there are no closets
I can hear the wooden door as it opens and lets loose its sigh of dampness!!
I don’t belong!
I knew then I had to have a house
A real house,
One I could point to
One with its feet tucked under like a cat!
A house all my own
I want a house as quiet as snow,
I look up and the moon is beautiful like a balloon
A red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor.

I want a home
A home is a house in a photograph,
A pink house,
Pink as holly hocks with lots of startled light
Not an apartment in back
A home in the heart
With my porch and pillow,
My pretty purple petunias.

One day I will say goodbye to Mango Street
I will say thank you and goodbye!!
What I remember most is a sad red house,
The house I belong to but do not belong to
But the cat-eyed one tells me,
You will always be Esperanza
You can’t erase what you know
You can’t forget who you are
You live right here, 4006 Mango,
Alicia says and points to the house I am ashamed of
I look up,
I look up and the moon is beautiful like a balloon
A red balloon, a balloon tied to an